2019 UNDP Human Development Report BACKGROUND PAPER NO. 5-2019 Examining Inequality in the Arts Patrick Kabanda November 2019 Examining Inequality in the Arts Patrick Kabanda is the author of The Creative Wealth of Nations, a book with a foreword by Amartya Sen. He has consulted for the United Nations Development Programme as well as the Office of the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank. He received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy degree from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. A frequent speaker and performer, he continues to lecture and perform across the world. The author welcomes feedback at [email protected] and at www.musikaba.net. The author wishes to thank Amartya Sen, Pedro Conceição and the following individuals for their comments and discussions: Kaushik Basu, Diane Coyle, Kate Fox, Sunil Iyengar, Paul Moody, Dirk Philipsen, Sanjay Reddy, Carolina Rivera, Jonathan Rothwell and Craig Whitney. ABSTRACT There is nothing new about the nature and scope of inequality engulfing the world today. Still, notwithstanding the ‘starving artist’ mantra—which has become an acceptable truism—inequality in the arts is rarely examined. This discussion aims to shed light on that issue by looking at the music industry, photography and cultural diversity as it makes the following points: Studying the music industry can effectively teach us about the winner-take-all economy, given the way the confluence of technology, globalization and superstar markets have fuelled greater income disparities for artists. Examining gender bias in photography, a medium that often shapes our world, similarly can help us view inequality from a holistic perspective. And scrutinizing Hollywood’s global dominance can bring our attention to the responsibility to uphold cultural diversity. In the battle to curb inequality in the arts and beyond, there is a need to continually collect and analyse data and, among other things, commission creative work to inspire an inclusive world. The United States of America, where inequality is increasingly becoming the trademark of a nation, presents a compelling site for inquiry. Copyright @ 2020 By the United Nations Development Programme 1 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017 USA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission. General disclaimers. 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In no event shall the HDRO and UNDP be liable for damages arising from its use. The published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. 2019 Human Development Report 2 BACKGROUND PAPER Examining Inequality in the Arts Introduction Inequality is embedded in our social and economic structure, and a significant reduction requires us to examine all aspects of our society. —Anthony B. Atkinson1 In March 2019, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) convened a high-level open dialogue in New York to discuss one of the most pressing issues rocking the economic and social structure of our time: inequality. The United Nations is not short of frequent high-level meetings. Nonetheless, this time the tenor of the meeting, which had the aura of a packed concert at Carnegie Hall featuring a superstar pianist, was telling. Sometimes the moments of discussion felt like a confession session at Mass, with high priests of the god of economic justice ready to not only hear what had gone wrong and what was left undone, but also decide what should now be done. The first moment came with the acknowledgement that inequality had been noticed years ago, but since there were no data, not much had been done about it. 2 The second came from the Nobel economist Paul Krugman. Krugman said that his first non-technical book, The Age of Diminished Expectations, written in 1989, contained a chapter on rising inequality. For complicated reasons, however, Krugman went on to say, the publisher put the book together under the auspices of The Washington Post, and they kept asking him to drop the chapter. “They said nobody cares about this,” he recalled. Inequality was apparently not the tune the top brass inside the Beltway wanted to hear,3 although they were somehow playing it. Fast forward, inequality is ballooning at an alarming rate, and we ignore it at our peril.4 As it happens, in creative work, which often escapes full-fledged policy attention, things have always been alarming. Consider the sector’s longstanding gender problem, and inequalities in arts access and income, for example.5 Given the arts’ influence on society, there is a pressing need to examine inequality in the arts in both the economic and social aspects of human development, and explore what to do about it. 1 Atkinson 2015, p. 3. Emphasis added. 2 UNDP 2019b. 3 Krugman 2019c. 4 Many people have discussed this; see Yunus 2017 (especially p. 5) and Wu 2018, for example. 5 As Atkinson argued, the types of inequality under consideration need to be clarified to avoid confusion, and this discussion will tackle that aspect in the coming paragraphs. This is also crucial because of the common counterargument that the arts are somehow elite “in terms of organizations curating and supplying artistic ‘excellence’ for a commensurately rarefied consumer base” (Sunil Iyengar, email message to the author, 13 March 2020). But that counterargument should not be used as a veil to sidestep tough questions like gender bias, income exploitation and cultural diversity that beset the arts. 2019 Human Development Report BACKGROUND PAPER 3 5 Examining Inequality in the Arts This exploration, moreover, can push us to consider the problem of rising economic inequality as reflected in the arts. In 2013, for example, The Wall Street Journal ran an unlikely headline: “‘Winner Take All’ Economy Mirrors Music Industry.” The article that followed, by Sudeep Reddy, opened by paraphrasing the late Alan B. Krueger, who once served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors under the Obama Administration: “The U.S. economy is looking increasingly like the music industry: a small sliver of people are capturing the largest gains.”6 As matters stand, the iconic US singer, songwriter and civil rights activist Nina Simone once said: “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times. I think that is true of painters, sculptors, poets, musicians.”7 Ironically, it is as if the music industry itself is mirroring the inequality problem of our time. Krueger, who was a leading scholar of ‘rockonomics’, and noted the gross inequality that taints the music industry and the arts at large, was a rarity among economists. The economics profession, which informs much of public policy ex cathedra, has yet to appreciate culture, and hence consider its application vis-à-vis meaningful growth and development action. But why is it important to examine inequality through the lens of the arts? First of all, consider the most abstract of art forms and the starting point of this discussion: music. Eons before imagining writing or agriculture, according to the US author and media theorist Steven Johnson, early humans were busy crafting tools to make music. Not everyone has to believe Nietzsche, who proclaimed, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Yet music, which enjoys “a longer history of technological innovation than any other art form,”8 directly and indirectly occupies a great deal of people’s time. Indeed, in the current context, although it can be argued that “music represents a small percentage of economic activity”—that is, economic activity that is measured and perhaps even disregards trade in value added9—in our daily lives, music looms large.10 Therefore, studying creative sectors like the music industry, as Krueger observes, “helps shed light on one key factor: the role of superstar markets.”11 Since the arts evince superstars who hold court as if they are gods, it bears considering how technology and globalization fuel income inequality by enabling superstars to net super incomes. Although digital technologies can benefit even lesser known artists, they also amplify superstar effects. These technologies therefore have not been as egalitarian as was previously thought. Moreover, as will be 6 Reddy 2013. See also Krueger 2019b. 7 Simone 2013. NB: Simone’s birth name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon. 8 Johnson 2016, pp. 67, 69, 71–72. 9 For more on trade in value added, see Kabanda 2018, pp. 85–87, 212 and 217–218. 10 Krueger 2019b, pp. 40–41. 11 Krueger 2019a; 2019b, p. 1. The superstar effect is evidently present in other areas. Take sports, for one. See also Frank and Cook 1996.